The Hindu Business Line : Century Textiles sales up; rains dent bottomline

UNPRECEDENTED rains in July in and around Mumbai affected operations at Century Textiles and Industries Ltd's Rayon, Tyre Cord and Chemical plants, resulting in loss of production and expenditure for repairs and re-commissioning of these plants. The damage from the rains affected production for the July-September quarter this fiscal. Normalcy in manufacturing operations was restored at the Rayon and Tyre Cord plants in two weeks and its chemical plant in nearly four weeks.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the company saw its net profit decline to Rs 7.41 crore from Rs 14.27 crore in the corresponding previous period.

However, net sales rose to Rs 582.95 crore (Rs 574.71 crore).

Interestingly, while net sales of its textiles and pulp and paper divisions fell, cement sales for the company did well. Cement sales were up to Rs 275 crore (from Rs 256.26 crore). Net sales for textiles was down to Rs 179 crore (Rs 190 crore) and pulp and paper sales was down to Rs 118 crore (Rs 122 crore).

However, in value terms, profit after depreciation and before interest and taxation rose for the pulp and paper division to Rs 16.65 crore over Rs 12.88 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. But for its cement division, this was almost halved to Rs 7.52 crore (Rs 14.61 crore) and for the textiles division this was down to Rs 46 lakh (Rs 1.82 crore).

The company also entered into an agreement with a foreign party for the sale of its only remaining ship. The Shipping Division will be closed following the conclusion of the sale.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange the company's share price closed higher at Rs 283 over its previous close of Rs 268.70.

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